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serricoStar Trek: Picard 3.10:
I liked two (2) things:
1) Nobody died. I was very seriously expecting either Jean-Luc or Raffi not to survive, so it was a pleasant surprise that the show went the Everybody Lives route.
2) The Worf-and-Raffi friendship was delightful all around. The little grace note of Worf facilitating a chance for Raffi to repair her relationship with her son and build a relationship with her granddaughter was particularly lovely, as it demonstrated better than any of the mindfulness/pacifist jokes sprinkled through the rest of the season that Worf’s matured into a great deal of emotional intelligence and compassion.
Otherwise, I kind of...just...don’t know why this season exists. Well, no, I know why it exists: to be a vehicle for the TNG reunioncashgrab nostalgiagasm and the blatant bid for spinoffs starring Matalas’ self-insert character(s). But as a vehicle for any form of meaningful story or character examination/evolution...
Maybe I would think differently if I didn’t utterly loathe the whole “Jean-Luc Picard was never ~complete~ until he had A Son” thing. Because really, that’s the story this season told--explicitly so, as Jean-Luc said as much to Jack while trying to talk him out of the Collective--and that’s the character evolution this season put Jean-Luc through, and I disagree wholeheartedly with that entire premise. I don’t hate that Jack exists. (Although I do disagree with some of the mechanics that went into his existence, because they don’t gel with my take on who Beverly is as a character.) But the story they built around his existence doesn’t appeal to me at all, because it a) posits something about Jean-Luc as a character that I don’t agree with, and b) requires us to invest in one HECK of a paint-by-numbers rogueish yet secretly-insecure whitebread Special Boy, and...whew. No.
So I don’t buy into this season’s main premise, I don't agree with a lot of the choices that went into the story’s details, and I don’t care for the showrunner’s obvious disinterest in--and sometimes outright contempt for--most of the characters and developments from the first two seasons of this show. (I also don’t care for Matalas’ All About Me-isms, ie his self-inserts Jack and Shaw, his buddies-from-his-old-show guest-cast, and his naming in-universe shit after himself.) All of which are Me Problems, I’m well aware.
But there are also some things I didn’t like that aren’t Me Problems. The way the ~surprise reveal~ really did come down to Borg Semen, an objectively silly hook to hang a story on as well as an objectively silly retcon of how the Borg work. The way Picard’s Locutus PTSD had already been addressed extensively--and, I would argue, much more meaningfully--in both First Contact and PIC s1, making the return to it again here seem like an unnecessary rehash. The way the season’s climax kind of reiterated First Contact and some of the PIC s2 Borg Queen stuff, and flat-out reiterated the “Data’s funny when he feels things” jokes from Generations, and brought nothing new or particularly interesting to any of it.
The way the season as a whole, with all its nostalgia for the trappings of TNG (and DS9 and VOY and TOS) in its characters and sets and props and sound effects and ships and guests and cameos and namedrops, didn’t seem interested in or capable of providing anything like the thoughtful, allegorical, often philosophical underpinnings that were hallmarks of the older series’ storytelling. Instead, it gave us the aforementioned reiterations of previously-done plot and emotional beats, with souped-up action and bombast and quips and “twists” that most people saw coming from miles away. It certainly didn’t seem inclined to revisit the unique balance of professionalism and personal rapport that made the TNG crew work so well together back in the day: instead, we got bullshit secret-keeping (Beverly), angry outbursts (Will), paternalism and reticence (Geordi), and frightened abandonment of a vulnerable patient (Deanna). Because ~Drama~.
Was it good to see these characters around a conference table and on the bridge again? Sure. Was it really good to see people--especially women--in their sixties-through-eighties being commanding presences, action heroes, and centres of stories? Absolutely. Was it actually like revisiting TNG? Not so much, no.
So the nostalgiagasm did very little for me, and some of the things it revisited, IMO, didn't actually need revisiting and didn't go anywhere worthwhile via the revisiting. And the story around the nostalgiagasm did nothing for me whatsoever. And 90% of what I liked about seasons 1 and 2 were Sirs and Ladies Not Appearing In This Season.
So overall, as a sequel to TNG, I feel like this season was an incredibly inessential exercise. Frankly, given how incoherent ST:PIC is when looked at as a whole, and given what it's actually done with the character and ~legacy~ of Jean-Luc Picard, I feel like the whole show was just...inessential. It certainly hasn't brought anything meaningful to my own ongoing experience of Trek, because like any good fan of any sprawling media property, I'm going to cheerfully and wilfully ignore the things I don't like about what it added to canon.
Anyway. Assorted things:
--Hinging Jack’s ability to break free of the Collective on the strength of his emotional bond with his parents was RIDICULOUS. Firstly, if a strong emotional connection with your parents was enough to resist assimilation, the Borg would’ve never been a threat in the first place. Secondly, it was Jack’s connection with his “parents” in name only: even though Beverly, who raised Jack and was his sole parental figure and emotional support for the majority of his life, appeared in his breaking-free memory montage, we were absolutely supposed to see the most important factor in Jack’s ability to break free as being his relationship with Jean-Luc, the sperm donor he met once and felt rebuffed by in his youth and has only known personally for mayyyybe a week. RIDICULOUS.
--Much has been made of how Ed Speleers is about a decade older than Jack’s supposed to be. I never much cared about that, because watching TV means watching people who are far too old to be playing the characters they’re playing and happily suspending your disbelief about it/making the occasional joke about thirty-year-old highschoolers. However, over the last three eps, I’ve come to the conclusion that, while Speleers does a decent job, a visibly younger actor might have better embodied the character’s youthful insecurities and rashness, and might have more successfully portrayed him as a child to be protected rather than as a grown adult who’s causing problems while trying to skate on boyish charm.
--The reveal of Shaw’s personnel evaluation of Seven--in which he calls her by her actual name of his own volition and judges her to be not just a good officer but Starfleet Captain Material--was fucking INFURIATING. Look, see! We all misjudged the Charming Asshole Dipshit from Chicago, because he actually wasn’t an asshole at all! He just repeatedly and deliberately deadnamed a colleague and treated people he didn’t like with open contempt in public; privately, he was just a big ol’ honourable teddybear who always respected everyone and recognized everybody’s value!
Meanwhile, back in episode 3 or 4, they used almost exactly what he said in the eval as an example of a dead giveaway that the “Liam Shaw” expressing those sentiments was actually a Changeling.
--They really did sideline Seven and Raffi’s relationship to the point of no-homoing them, huh. I can't even give points for Captain Seven and First Officer Raffi because it feels like such a sop: "Look, they're ~together~! In what personal capacity no one knows, but look! Professionally!"
--Where is Kestra while her parents are off saving the universe? What did Deanna do with her after disposing of the Changeling!Will that showed up at their house? While Will was nobly sacrificing himself to save Jean-Luc and Jack, and sending Deanna reassuring thoughts about how he’d be waiting for her in the next life with Thad, did he actually forget he still has a daughter in this life?
--Do not get me started on the post-credits scene. I'm so tired.
So. Yes.
I liked two (2) things:
1) Nobody died. I was very seriously expecting either Jean-Luc or Raffi not to survive, so it was a pleasant surprise that the show went the Everybody Lives route.
2) The Worf-and-Raffi friendship was delightful all around. The little grace note of Worf facilitating a chance for Raffi to repair her relationship with her son and build a relationship with her granddaughter was particularly lovely, as it demonstrated better than any of the mindfulness/pacifist jokes sprinkled through the rest of the season that Worf’s matured into a great deal of emotional intelligence and compassion.
Otherwise, I kind of...just...don’t know why this season exists. Well, no, I know why it exists: to be a vehicle for the TNG reunion
Maybe I would think differently if I didn’t utterly loathe the whole “Jean-Luc Picard was never ~complete~ until he had A Son” thing. Because really, that’s the story this season told--explicitly so, as Jean-Luc said as much to Jack while trying to talk him out of the Collective--and that’s the character evolution this season put Jean-Luc through, and I disagree wholeheartedly with that entire premise. I don’t hate that Jack exists. (Although I do disagree with some of the mechanics that went into his existence, because they don’t gel with my take on who Beverly is as a character.) But the story they built around his existence doesn’t appeal to me at all, because it a) posits something about Jean-Luc as a character that I don’t agree with, and b) requires us to invest in one HECK of a paint-by-numbers rogueish yet secretly-insecure whitebread Special Boy, and...whew. No.
So I don’t buy into this season’s main premise, I don't agree with a lot of the choices that went into the story’s details, and I don’t care for the showrunner’s obvious disinterest in--and sometimes outright contempt for--most of the characters and developments from the first two seasons of this show. (I also don’t care for Matalas’ All About Me-isms, ie his self-inserts Jack and Shaw, his buddies-from-his-old-show guest-cast, and his naming in-universe shit after himself.) All of which are Me Problems, I’m well aware.
But there are also some things I didn’t like that aren’t Me Problems. The way the ~surprise reveal~ really did come down to Borg Semen, an objectively silly hook to hang a story on as well as an objectively silly retcon of how the Borg work. The way Picard’s Locutus PTSD had already been addressed extensively--and, I would argue, much more meaningfully--in both First Contact and PIC s1, making the return to it again here seem like an unnecessary rehash. The way the season’s climax kind of reiterated First Contact and some of the PIC s2 Borg Queen stuff, and flat-out reiterated the “Data’s funny when he feels things” jokes from Generations, and brought nothing new or particularly interesting to any of it.
The way the season as a whole, with all its nostalgia for the trappings of TNG (and DS9 and VOY and TOS) in its characters and sets and props and sound effects and ships and guests and cameos and namedrops, didn’t seem interested in or capable of providing anything like the thoughtful, allegorical, often philosophical underpinnings that were hallmarks of the older series’ storytelling. Instead, it gave us the aforementioned reiterations of previously-done plot and emotional beats, with souped-up action and bombast and quips and “twists” that most people saw coming from miles away. It certainly didn’t seem inclined to revisit the unique balance of professionalism and personal rapport that made the TNG crew work so well together back in the day: instead, we got bullshit secret-keeping (Beverly), angry outbursts (Will), paternalism and reticence (Geordi), and frightened abandonment of a vulnerable patient (Deanna). Because ~Drama~.
Was it good to see these characters around a conference table and on the bridge again? Sure. Was it really good to see people--especially women--in their sixties-through-eighties being commanding presences, action heroes, and centres of stories? Absolutely. Was it actually like revisiting TNG? Not so much, no.
So the nostalgiagasm did very little for me, and some of the things it revisited, IMO, didn't actually need revisiting and didn't go anywhere worthwhile via the revisiting. And the story around the nostalgiagasm did nothing for me whatsoever. And 90% of what I liked about seasons 1 and 2 were Sirs and Ladies Not Appearing In This Season.
So overall, as a sequel to TNG, I feel like this season was an incredibly inessential exercise. Frankly, given how incoherent ST:PIC is when looked at as a whole, and given what it's actually done with the character and ~legacy~ of Jean-Luc Picard, I feel like the whole show was just...inessential. It certainly hasn't brought anything meaningful to my own ongoing experience of Trek, because like any good fan of any sprawling media property, I'm going to cheerfully and wilfully ignore the things I don't like about what it added to canon.
Anyway. Assorted things:
--Hinging Jack’s ability to break free of the Collective on the strength of his emotional bond with his parents was RIDICULOUS. Firstly, if a strong emotional connection with your parents was enough to resist assimilation, the Borg would’ve never been a threat in the first place. Secondly, it was Jack’s connection with his “parents” in name only: even though Beverly, who raised Jack and was his sole parental figure and emotional support for the majority of his life, appeared in his breaking-free memory montage, we were absolutely supposed to see the most important factor in Jack’s ability to break free as being his relationship with Jean-Luc, the sperm donor he met once and felt rebuffed by in his youth and has only known personally for mayyyybe a week. RIDICULOUS.
--Much has been made of how Ed Speleers is about a decade older than Jack’s supposed to be. I never much cared about that, because watching TV means watching people who are far too old to be playing the characters they’re playing and happily suspending your disbelief about it/making the occasional joke about thirty-year-old highschoolers. However, over the last three eps, I’ve come to the conclusion that, while Speleers does a decent job, a visibly younger actor might have better embodied the character’s youthful insecurities and rashness, and might have more successfully portrayed him as a child to be protected rather than as a grown adult who’s causing problems while trying to skate on boyish charm.
--The reveal of Shaw’s personnel evaluation of Seven--in which he calls her by her actual name of his own volition and judges her to be not just a good officer but Starfleet Captain Material--was fucking INFURIATING. Look, see! We all misjudged the Charming Asshole Dipshit from Chicago, because he actually wasn’t an asshole at all! He just repeatedly and deliberately deadnamed a colleague and treated people he didn’t like with open contempt in public; privately, he was just a big ol’ honourable teddybear who always respected everyone and recognized everybody’s value!
Meanwhile, back in episode 3 or 4, they used almost exactly what he said in the eval as an example of a dead giveaway that the “Liam Shaw” expressing those sentiments was actually a Changeling.
--They really did sideline Seven and Raffi’s relationship to the point of no-homoing them, huh. I can't even give points for Captain Seven and First Officer Raffi because it feels like such a sop: "Look, they're ~together~! In what personal capacity no one knows, but look! Professionally!"
--Where is Kestra while her parents are off saving the universe? What did Deanna do with her after disposing of the Changeling!Will that showed up at their house? While Will was nobly sacrificing himself to save Jean-Luc and Jack, and sending Deanna reassuring thoughts about how he’d be waiting for her in the next life with Thad, did he actually forget he still has a daughter in this life?
--Do not get me started on the post-credits scene. I'm so tired.
So. Yes.
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Date: 2023-04-22 02:28 pm (UTC)Here it is: https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1542909.html
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Date: 2023-04-22 03:30 pm (UTC)